Kinder, gentler Tiger Woods shows up before Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Stop me if you've heard this one before.

A man walks into a press conference two days before the Masters, wearing Tiger Woods' hat and clothes and looking quite a bit like the tournament's legendary four-time winner.

But it's not Tiger. It can't be. The man is smiling — wide, genuine, warm, Phil smiles, the kind that the real Tiger would never be caught dead sharing with the news media. This man also is introspective and forthcoming, telling stories about practicing while his young children picked flowers and played tag nearby, about chipping with hip-hop music piped into his ears, about "feeling older" as 40 approaches.

He's funny. He's kind. He's even a little bit humble.

Who is this human being, and what has he done with the real Tiger Woods?

This Tiger impostor might not have a good week at the Masters, but he's certainly a lot more fun to be around than that other guy.

Golf fans, it has finally happened. A kinder, gentler Tiger Woods has shown up for a major championship. Whether this is a permanent development or a half-hour, Tuesday-interview-room aberration, only time will tell.

But it's definitely a positive turn of events — for Tiger the person. As for Tiger the golfer, the man who won 14 majors by wearing blinders and specializing in one-syllable answers, I'm not so sure.

Let's leave the sports talk for another day. Tiger still has two rounds ahead of him here even if he hasn't figured out all his problems from the winter and misses the cut.

I mean, who cares about golf when we can talk about the kids, seven-year-old Sam and six-year-old Charlie?

For the first time in 11 years, Tiger is going to play in Wednesday's Par 3 contest, the light-hearted preamble to the Masters in which wives and children and friends and brothers carry players' bags and sometimes even take a turn with the putter.

So, Tiger, who's your caddie?

"I have two, actually," he smiled. "My two littles are going to be out there with me. It's special. As I said, this tournament means so much to me in so many different ways."

He mentioned his late father and the 1997 Masters, his first major victory. Tiger stepped off the 18th green that Sunday into the arms of his father, who had been very ill earlier in the year.

"To now have come full circle and to have a chance to have my kids out there and be able to share that with them, it's special," he said. "Charlie has seen me win a golf tournament before. Sam, actually she was there at the U.S. Open in 2008, but doesn't remember it. It's nice to be able to share these things with my family and it just means the world to me. They are excited, I'm excited and can't wait to go out there."

Tiger Woods "excited" for the Par 3 contest? Who ever thought that sentence would be written?

There's more. Over the years, exchanges between Tiger and journalists have not always been entirely pleasant. But that was not the case Tuesday.

Reporter: "No one's game is under as much scrutiny as yours – "

Woods: "Really?"

The room erupted into laughter.

If you can sound entirely at ease being an old 39 with a history of back problems and a terrible case of the chipping yips of late, that was Tiger Woods on this day.

"Competing is still the same," he said. "I'm trying to beat everybody out there. That hasn't changed. I prepare to win and expect to go and do that. The only difference is that I won the Masters when Jordan (Spieth, who is 21) was still in diapers. The difference is that guys are now younger, a whole other generation of kids are coming out."

That generation grew up idolizing Tiger, never fearing him. And now they regularly beat him.

"I'm feeling older, there's no doubt about that," he said. "Try chasing around six‑ and seven‑year‑olds all day, you start feeling it.

"But the good news is my soccer game has gotten a lot better."